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Don Edwards, who championed civil rights during 32 years in Congress, dies at 100

Rep. Don Edwards in 1990; the liberal Democratic icon and champion of civil and constitutional rights has died at the age of 100.
(John Duricka / Associated Press)
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Don Edwards, a longtime liberal Democratic icon from San Jose who distinguished himself fighting for the rights of the disadvantaged and opposing the Vietnam War, died Thursday, 20 years after he retired from Congress. He was 100.

His death was confirmed by his son, Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Len Edwards.

During 32 years in Congress, Edwards became known as the dean of the California delegation and a champion of civil and constitutional rights. Admirers called him “the conscience of Congress.”

Early on, he played a key role in convincing Congress to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 under President Lyndon Johnson.

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“It’s hard for some of you to remember… When I arrived [in Congress], black people couldn’t vote in large parts of the country, and if they did, they’d get hanged,” Edwards told supporters when he retired in 1995.

He also served on the House Judiciary Committee during the Watergate crisis that forced President Richard Nixon to resign.

He was one of the first lawmakers to oppose the nation’s growing involvement in the Vietnam War. Later, he would oppose the U.S. invasion of Panama in 1989, and he tried to stop the U.S. from going to war in the Persian Gulf in 1991.

In criticizing President George H.W. Bush’s war on drugs in 1990, Edwards said, “In a free society, values are not imposed by wholesale arrests and imprisonment of minor offenders.”

In 2003, he was awarded the Congressional Distinguished Service Award for serving his constituents and America with “extraordinary distinction and selfless dedication.”

Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose), who succeeded Edwards in Congress, said he will be remembered for a life of service to California and the country.

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“His contributions will live on for many generations through the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge, through his stalwart defense of the Constitution, his profound dedication to civil rights, his tireless advocacy for the rights of women as the ‘Father of the Equal Rights Amendment,’ and his lifelong efforts for a peaceful world,” Lofgren wrote on Facebook.

William Donlon Edwards was born in San Jose on Jan. 6, 1915. He attended San Jose public schools and earned degrees from Stanford University and Stanford Law School.

He began his career as an FBI agent but joined the Navy in the early 1940s and served as an intelligence and gunnery officer. After the war, he made his money in the insurance business.

He married three times and had three sons. His third wife, Edith Wilkie, died in 2011.

Edwards began his political career as a Republican and was elected president of the California Young Republicans in 1950. But he had switched parties by the time he was first elected to the House in 1962.

Shortly after he arrived in Washington, he joined a small group of lawmakers who tried to abolish the House Committee on Un-American Activities, which had ruined numerous careers in misguided investigations of alleged Communist sympathizers.

“I’d only been there a few days,” Edwards said proudly in 1995, recalling the 1963 vote. “The whole room just stopped. The whole room.”

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In 1967, as antiwar protests roiled the nation, he voted against making flag burning a federal crime. He would go on to oppose efforts to introduce prayer in public schools, to ban abortions, and to end school busing to integrate schools. He was arrested in a protest of South African apartheid.

“He has been willing to work with most conservative Republicans, people who have disagreed with him on every ideological issue, to try and create a California agenda,” Howard Berman, then a California congressman, told The Times in 1994. “He has never let his ideology undermine his commitment to California.”

In January, Edwards celebrated his 100th birthday with chocolate cake and ice cream, and was in good spirits despite being nearly deaf and blind, according to the San Jose Mercury News.

“The world works better when we get along, and that’s what we owe everybody,” Edwards told the newspaper in 2003.

marcus.howard@latimes.com

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